Dr Tom Owen-Hughes, Dr Joost Zomerdijk and Dr Bill Hunter, three scientists who run research groups in the Wellcome Trust Biocentre at the University of Dundee, have secured prestigious 5-year Senior Research Fellowships in Basic Biomedical Sciences from the Wellcome Trust totalling over £3m.
The Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowships provide support for outstanding investigators who have shown special promise in their initial studies of basic biomedical problems. The Fellowships are tenable for up to five years and renewable for a further five, providing expenses for research assistants and technical support and a salary. The Fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis with only 15 awards this year, of which Dundee received three.
Dr Tom Owen-Hughes' work provides new insights into gene control, including how the correct genes are switched on at the right time. It is expected that by improving our understanding of the basic principles by which genes are regulated it will be possible to improve the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and infections. Dr Owen-Hughes is based in the Division of Gene Regulation and Expression.
Dr Zomerdijk is a Principal Investigator also based in the Division of Gene Regulation and Expression. For the last five years Dr Zomerdijk has been studying the complex protein-machineries that turn genes on and off, a process vital for normal cell growth and physiology, and which is deregulated in many diseases.
Dr Bill Hunter is a Principal Investigator in the Division of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Microbiology. His research seeks to improve understanding of how pathogenic microbes deal with the toxic by-products of normal metabolism, aspects of drug resistance and the biosynthesis of essential metabolites. The research is a multidisciplinary programme founded on single crystal X-ray diffraction studies that will, in the longer term, contribute to the development of improved treatments for a range of microbial infections.
Director of the Wellcome Trust Biocentre, Professor Sir Philip Cohen welcomed the news "Tom, Joost and Bill thoroughly deserve these awards for the outstanding research they have carried out over the past few years. These awards recognise the excellent scientists we have at the University of Dundee.
Picture:(l-r) Dr Tom Owen-Hughes, Dr Bill Hunter and Dr Joost Zomerdijk
Contact
Angela Nicoll
Publicity and Liaison Officer, School of Life Sciences, University of
Dundee, Dundee DD1 5EH, UK
Tel: 44 (0)1382 345072 Fax: 44 (0)1382 345553 email:
a.k.nicoll@dundee.ac.uk